Sometimes people ask how to teach their children to pray, or teach them about the Lord during the day, so I thought I would share our experiences.

My 2yo DD has already learned to pray "spontaneously" on her own.

We talk off an on throughout the day about how good God is, and how he takes care of us and provides for us, etc. (in terms a 2 yo can understand). When it rains, we thank God for the rain. If someone is sick, we pray for them, and when they are healed, we give God the glory for it. Since DD recently had a nightmare or two, we pray for God to give her "happy dreams" each night, and then in the morning I ask her how she slept and we thank God for taking care of her. We talk a lot about how God loves us, and we love Him. How He gives us things and takes care of our needs. Etc., etc., etc. We also read Bible stories and talk about them. All of this is done in brief sessions, whatever holds a 2 yo's attention span. We also keep her in "big church" with us, so she is exposed to the whole service. We sometimes explain what is going on (if they're having prayer, or we explain during the singing that we're worshiping God, etc.).

It is so nice to start seeing fruit from these things. For instance, one day when it rained, DD was the first one to say, "It's raining, Mommy!! Thank you, God, for the rain!"

Recently her grandmother was in the hospital. We held hands and prayed for her. She told me later that "God will take care of Grandmama." The next day when she went home from the hospital, I told DD that she was feeling better and was going home. DD said, "God healed Grandmama. He touched her heart."

She has been doing similar things like this a lot. I even hear her pray for her dolls and stuffed animals. She will say, "God, please help giraffe-y to be happy." or "God, tiger hurt his knee, please touch his knee."

This morning, she fell and hit her mouth on her bed and cried. She told me that God would heal her. Then she went in the room where her Daddy was and told him that she would pray for God to heal her mouth. She stood there and said, "God, please touch my mouth." Then her Daddy reminded her to say "Amen." She also was telling me this morning that God loves her, and Jesus loves her, and Jesus is God. I know she doesn't understand all of it yet, but she is learning, at her own pace according to her age.

These moments are so sweet and so special.

Anyway, I just wanted to encourage those of you who have wondered how to teach the little ones. Just talk about these things all day long. Share the things you pray for, and share the answers to your prayers. Let you children know how God provides for you in all of the many ways that He takes care of us. Let them hear you praying, and thanking God. They will learn, and they will also learn to trust God.

Deut. 6:4-9
"4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

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